A Special Occasion
by ColdestDays
Summary: A cold snap in February has Stephanie stuck in her apartment, Ranger comes to cook dinner but she can't figure out why.  Hint: it's Valentine's Day!


A/N: I just wanted to start off by saying thanks to all of you who read, reviewed, and favorited my previous story. I was genuinely touched by everyone's support!

I wasn't planning on writing a Valentine's Day fic, but here it is. It came out in about 24 hours so excuse any mistakes.

It was a cold, cold day in February. Trenton was going through the mother of all cold snaps and it wasn't due to break for another few days. I hadn't made it to the office all week and my bank account was running dangerously low. My furnace running full blast for the last week was not going to help matters.

After a week straight of watching daytime TV I had gotten bored and pulled the chair in my bedroom up to the window to look out over my fire escape and into the snow covered parking lot. I was wearing an over sized cable knit sweater, sweatpants, and two pairs of socks to keep me warm. On top of that, I was huddled under a fleece blanket with a steaming mug of hot chocolate and a copy of Confessions of a Shopaholic. I desperately wished that winter would go away and I could be sitting on my fire escape with a beer instead.

Morelli and I had broken up for good just before Christmas. He came to me and told me he met someone else whom he wanted to try a relationship with. While that admission hurt at first, I realized I wanted nothing more than for him to be happy. And so far, it seemed like he was. Now, if only I could get _my_ love life in order.

Ranger and I had gotten closer since the official breakup. He stopped by more often to check up on me and ultimately, we spent more time together outside of work. Things hadn't picked up in the romance department but we were closer friends than ever before. I couldn't bring myself to complain about our friendship. I considered myself lucky that I could call Ranger a friend at all; he had made it clear to me that it was a very elite class to be in. Still, I was little disappointed that Ranger wasn't moving in on me as he had promised many times in the past.

I heard some scuffling from the front of my apartment and looked over at the clock. 3:15. The noises were too loud to be Rex so my next guess was that Ranger had let himself in unannounced. I picked myself up and shuffled out of the bedroom to see what he wanted. God, I hoped it wasn't a job outside of these walls. On second thought, I would accept a job that would take me to Hawaii. Or anywhere warm.

I found him in the kitchen with a box in his arms. "What's all this?" I wanted to know.

"Dinner," he answered looking over at me, I could feel his gaze traveling up my body. "Comfortable?"

I looked down at my casual clothes and grimaced. I put a hand to my hair and realized that since I hadn't bothered to leave the apartment, I also hadn't bothered to shower or wash my hair.

"I was," I said. "Let me go clean up. Make yourself at home."

As if it would ever occur to Ranger to not make himself at home in my apartment. It used to bother me that he would simply let himself in but after a while, I realized that was just Ranger. We never had anything to hide from each other so he felt comfortable just showing up. He also extended the same courtesy to me having given me my own FOB for his seventh floor apartment and made it perfectly clear that I was to come and go as I pleased.

I picked out my favorite pair of jeans, a black scoop neck sweater, and my best underwear, a black lacy thong and matching lace bra. I took my time and made sure my legs, and everywhere else, was smooth and soft. If Ranger had taught me anything, it was that you could never be too prepared.

I used a little gel and blow dried my hair. It was still a little crazy, but I knew that was the way Ranger liked it. I put on minimal makeup, also the way I knew he liked. Just because Ranger hadn't made a move didn't mean I didn't want him to.

I took in one last look, was satisfied with my appearance, and made my way back to the kitchen. Almost everything was unpacked and put away. I looked in the fridge and noticed new packages of peanut butter, olives, and white bread. I smiled. I had a feeling that this wasn't for dinner and that Ranger figured since I hadn't left the house in a few days, I wouldn't have any food either. He was right. I was down to my last Pop Tart.

I felt him standing behind me and I straightened up to lean against his chest. "Thanks for the groceries."

He pulled my hair to one side and nuzzled my neck. "Hadn't seen your tracker move in a few days. Figured by now you might be out of food."

I turned around and faced him. "Does that mean you're here so you wouldn't feel guilty about me starving to death?"

Ranger smiled at me and pushed a curl behind my ear. "Well, that, and I missed you."

I melted a little at those words. He gave me a quick kiss on the lips and moved past me to the groceries he left on the counter. "Care to help?"

There was chicken, pasta, milk, bread, butter, and various spices laid out. I wasn't a cook, but even I knew the ingredient list for chicken Alfredo.

"You're making me dinner?" I asked, a little astonished.

"You don't think I can cook?"

I paused. "No, actually, I think you're pretty excellent at everything you do."

Ranger slid his gaze to me and cocked an eyebrow. "Excellent at _everything_?"

I knew he was referring to our one night together and I felt a blush creep up my cheeks. "Need some help?" I said, trying to distract him from that train of thought.

Ranger smiled at me and held me to his side when I came to the counter. "Start on the salad," he said kissing my temple.

We spent the next hour cooking in my kitchen. I finished the salad and helped Ranger with the rest of the meal. He made sure to keep a close eye on my actions and jumped in before I burned the sauce or put too much garlic on the garlic bread. I wasn't sure why he felt the need to stop me on that last one, I didn't think it was possible to ever have too much garlic on garlic bread.

We sat down to eat at my dining room table. Ranger had also brought with him a bottle of expensive looking wine and poured us each a generous glass. He swished it around and sniffed it before taking a sip. I held in an eye roll. Ranger had many different facets. I'd seen street Ranger, business Ranger, bedroom Ranger, domestic Ranger, and now I've seen high-class wine tasting Ranger. This last one threw me a bit and I wondered where he picked up this particular skill.

I was tempted to say grace since this seemed to be a fancy occasion but I squelched that dose of Catholic guilt by taking a big bite of my dinner and moaned at the first bite. I tilted my head up to see Ranger looking at me with dark, dangerous bedroom eyes.

I felt myself go warm under his gaze and squirmed a little in my seat. After a moment his eyes relaxed and he dug in, too. I took a moment to watch Ranger eat. I loved how at ease he was with me. I could usually feel his energy beneath his calm, cool exterior but when it was just us, that energy went away and he relaxed and let go.

I never questioned why Ranger came around but him making dinner was unusual. Usually we went out or Ella cooked us dinner and we ate at his place. I couldn't hold back my curiosity any longer. "Why did you cook dinner tonight?"

Ranger just looked at me and after a few moments pause he said, "You really don't know what today is?"

I thought for a moment. Ranger and I had met in August a few years ago so that wasn't the occasion. Did I do something worth celebrating? All I did this week was stay in my apartment and slack off. Finally, I shook my head no.

Ranger gave me a smile which told me that he wasn't going to say anything more on the matter. We ate in comfortable silence, relaxing in each other's company. I tried to figure out why Ranger had made us dinner but came up with nothing.

After dinner we cleaned up together and Ranger pulled out small chocolate cake that he had hidden in the back of the fridge. "Courtesy of Ella," he explained. We settled in on the couch to eat dessert when Ranger pulled out one last surprise for the night.

It was just after my breakup with Joe and I was still feeling a little down having just been dumped. Things weren't going well and I had one especially bad day where _three _skips got the better of me. My clothes were torn, my knees were scraped, and I was covered in garbage... again!

All I wanted to do that day was to go home, eat a mound of junk food, and watch my favorite movie of all time - Ghostbusters. I should have known better than to expect my evening to go according to plan. My credit card ended up being declined at Pino's due to a misunderstanding and to top it all off, my DVD player ate up my copy of Ghostbusters before spitting it back out covered in scratches. My parents had gotten me a new Blu-Ray player for Christmas but try as I might, I could not find a copy of Ghostbusters anywhere in Trenton.

I nearly jumped on Ranger when I saw the Ghostbuster's case in his hand. Fortunately he had the foresight to put the cake on the table before showing it to me. He spread out on my couch once the movie began and I tucked myself safely into his arms. Half way through it finally dawned on me what today was. I mentally slapped my hand to my forehead. Duh! I rolled over in Ranger's arms to face him, the realization evident on my face. "Thanks for a great Valentine's Day."

Ranger smiled the full 100-watts at me. "Babe."


End file.
